Merging into the highway: how do we manage change
Safely driving demands specific skills, such as caution, awareness, signalling our movements in advance, and so on. That is especially true when merging into the highway: accelerate to match traffic speed, check the traffic ahead and behind us, communicate your intentions clearly, try to blend in without disrupting the flow, no sudden movements, no obstructions, right? Well, not quite. Imperceptible as it may seem, we have just adapted to this new environment, accelerating or braking, anticipating other drivers’ actions and safely blending in with the new pattern. And success for everybody is riding on the combination of the driving abilities and predictive skills of everyone involved. How is that like facing change in our everyday life? Forced to “merge” into this pandemic, and trying to come to terms with it,…